Ep.88 | Breaking Bread… The Art, Health, and Fun of Baking Bread at Home
Healthy Benefits of Home Baked Bread
In addition to being more flavorful and aesthetic, homemade bread can be a much healthier alternative to store-bought bread. The bread you bake at home can be lower in sodium and sugar. In addition to the whole grain goodness of your bread, you can also add a variety of seeds. Try sesame, pumpkin, linseed and sunflower seeds in and on top of your loaves for additional dietary fiber, protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants.
We also need to talk about what will not be found in your home baked goods. Homemade bread will not contain additives. Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients that goes into a loaf of supermarket bread? …So many chemicals that are surely not healthy to eat, right? The list of additives used in industrial baking will include rising agents, emulsifiers, and preservatives to give it a longer shelf life. All of this is about profit and not about your good health. When you bake bread in your home kitchen, you will use only real food ingredients!
What makes factory baked bread products typically unhealthy?
Industrialized breads often use refined flour as a base ingredient, but may also include other ingredients such as:
Soya flour
This flour is made from uncooked soya beans and helps strengthen dough, giving loaves structure and support during baking. It also contributes to a creamy, "bready" flavor.
Preservatives
These are added to meet the shelf-life requirements. This is about profit and not about your good health!
Enzymes
These are added to adapt the dough to suit the production machinery.
Flour improvers
These are blends of ingredients that enhance the flour, such as fat, flour treatment agents, emulsifiers, and enzymes.
L-ascorbic acid
This oxidant helps retain gas in the dough, which makes the loaf rise more.
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Yeast in Baking…Is It Safe to Eat Yeast?
Yeast is a single cell fungus that helps the bread to rise and become soft and spongy. Yeast is a living bacteria that dies when put into an environment that is 125 degrees or higher. When you bake your bread the yeast will die.
There are many types of yeast used in baking. Some of them are commercial and some of them are extracted from fruit and grains. However, any type of yeast that is used in our bread baking, is completely safe unless it is consumed in raw form.
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THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Favorite Cookbook - Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza [A Cookbook] Hardcover – Illustrated by Ken Forkish (Author)
Favorite Scale - Fuzion Digital Kitchen Scale 3000g/ 0.1g, Pocket Food Scale 6 Units Conversion, Gram Scale with 2 Trays, LCD, Tare Function
Favorite Container for Dough Mixing - Cambro (RFS12PP190) 12 qt Round Polypropylene Food Storage Container
Favorite Lame for Scoring a Pre-baked Loaf - https://wiremonkey.com
Favorite Dutch Oven for Baking - Ramontina 3.5-Quart Enameled Cast-Iron Round Dutch Oven
Be sure you go to my website for cooking and baking tips!
www.happydiabetic.com
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For my favorite bread recipes click these links below:
Multi Grain Home Baked Artisan Bread…Made with Love!
Bob
Baker Bro
Bill
Baker Bro
Thoughts from Bill…
Sourdough - The first recipe I worked with
This is the only "regular/white" sourdough recipe I've tried.
I've tweaked the flour, whole wheat works against an open crumb.
I've tried beer instead of water, but it wasn't great. I need to experiment more.
This is a good simple recipe.
I like his website and some of the advice I've found there.
"High Fiber Seeded Sourdough"
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/high-fiber-sourdough-bread-recipe
This is a sandwich bread.
This is good with peanut butter & honey or in a more savory meat and cheese sandwich.
I use more seeds than he calls for; about 1-1/2 times.
I use a more "normal" starter routine.
This bread has a great flavor. The sunflower seed flavor is fairly prominent. But, I like that...
I grease the pans with "plant-based butter". It doesn't affect the flavor and works better than a liquid oil.
I make this dairy-free by using almond milk.
My Dutch Oven
This was an interesting/fun video…
